Health

NHS whistleblowers could be protected against discrimination if they apply to work for the health service again. Government plans would give applicants a right to complain to an employment tribunal if they believed they had suffered discrimination. Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to create “a culture of openness” where staff feel they can speak up about patient safety. Barrister ...

Showing arachnopohobes images of spiders so briefly they remain unaware of them could help them overcome their fear, US researchers suggest. Scans suggested the brain worked harder to regulate emotional and behavioural responses to fear when it was not conscious of it. The women in the small study were shown pictures of flowers interspersed very briefly with images of ...

The pancreas can be triggered to regenerate itself through a type of fasting diet, say US researchers. Restoring the function of the organ – which helps control blood sugar levels – reversed symptoms of diabetes in animal experiments. The study, published in the journal Cell, says the diet reboots the body. Experts said the findings were “potentially very exciting” as ...

The curious case of mysterious deaths in Indian Muzaffarpur left most of the epidemic researchers and doctors puzzled. The number of the deceased seemed to be growing at a fast pace with no valid rhyme or reason. Over the past three years, when summer was at its peak in mid-May, there were many instances of children waking up with convulsions, ...

One in 14 people in England is now on an NHS waiting list as hospitals struggle to keep up with rising demand. There are 3.7 million people waiting for routine care, such as knee and hip replacements – up 44% since 2012. Nearly a tenth of people on the list have waited more than the 18-week target for treatment to ...

More than 9.2 million US consumers signed up for health insurance using the Healthcare.gov website during the open enrolment period between November and Jan 31, the US government said on Friday. Enrolment was down from 9.7 million a year ago but the decline was smaller than some had predicted amid President Donald Trump’s push to overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature ...

Working more than 39 hours a week can wreak havoc on your mental and physical health, a new study has found. The new research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows the work limit should be set at 39 hours a week for a healthy life. They examined the working lives of 7890 adults and concluded that a culture of ...

Bread, chips and potatoes should be cooked to a golden yellow colour, rather than brown, to reduce our intake of a chemical which could cause cancer, government food scientists are warning. Acrylamide is produced when starchy foods are roasted, fried or grilled for too long at high temperatures. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends carefully following cooking instructions and avoiding ...

Medicinal cannabis effectively treats chronic pain and significantly helps those with multiple sclerosis (MS), a major US report on the health effects of marijuana has found. But recreational cannabis smoking is likely to increase the risk of schizophrenia and may even trigger a heart attack. In a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, researchers ...

Is your kid suffering from asthma? If yes, he or she may be more likely to become obese later in childhood or in adolescence, researchers have warned. The findings showed that young children with asthma were 51 per cent more likely to become obese over the next decade as compared to those who did not have condition in which a ...